After watching Charlie Wilson’s War, I thought about some things that were very interesting. Why was Afghanistan communist? Who were the Mujahideen? What were the Soviets doing there? I finally answered my questions and placed them into an essay. Apologies for the long post.
Communism is a political theory and system. In theory, “communism was believed to defeat capitalism through a workers’ revolution and create a system where property is owned by a community rather than by individuals, creating a classless society, in which all people enjoy equal socio-economic status.” German philosopher, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, created communism. They believed that Capitalism would increase the differences of the social classes, and that violent revolution was the only way to get rid of capitalism. In practice, communist states have taken the form of strict governments that cared little for the working class and eliminated freedom of speech.
After World War II “Communist” regimes took power in China, Eastern Europe, and other regions. These regimes shared certain basic features including adoption of Marxism-Leninism, a rejection of private property and capitalism, state-owned economic activity, and only one party controlled the government, the communist party. The party was very strict, it controlled and censored the mass media, restricted religious worship, and did not allow anyone to speak against the party. This is when Cold War started, in which the Soviet Union and the United States, and their respective allies, competed for political and military supremacy. By the early 1980s, almost one-third of the world’s population lived under communist regimes.
In its attempt to expand its communist supremacy, Soviet Russia had given aid to Afghanistan, actually even before the communist regime, supplying them with arms, economic aid, and advisors. Afghanistan was one of the poorest countries in the world and was run by a monarchy. In 1965, the People’s Democratic Party, (the PDP) Afghanistan’s communist party, was founded.
In 1978, The PDP carried out a coup and overthrew their monarch. Unfortunately, communism was not as accepted as first thought, as it ignored the middle class and Muslim clerics and tried to change the traditional, religious way of living, Afghanistan had been a Muslim country since 882 AD. Things got worse when the prime minister, an extremist member of the party assassinated their president and took over. The president of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, decided to send troops into Afghanistan in 1978, to aid the party, to assassinate the new president and assign a new president, which would support the Soviet-led invasion. The Soviets sent in 100,000 troops to fight the Mujahideen as well as helicopters, weapons and tanks.
The Mujahideen was the anti-communist Muslim guerrilla force, who tried to stop the Soviets and the communist government from taking over fully. The Mujahideen were being helped by the United States and Pakistan, giving them weapons, aid and training. In 1978, US president Jimmy Carter signed an order authorising the CIA to conduct “covert propaganda operations” against the communist regime. It helped the anti-Soviets through the Pakistani secret services, in an operation called “Operation Cyclone.”
Russia lost a lot of soldiers, money, and support from its own people. More countries were starting to assist the Mujahideen, including Great Britain and Saudi Arabia. In 1982, after president Brezhnev passed away, the Soviet Union had two temporary leaders until 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev took over reins and planned a big turn-around in Russia. Known as Perestroika (literally meaning restructuring), it was meant to change Russia into a modern society with free speech. After years of bloodshed and war, Gorbachev shortly signed a treaty to withdraw troops out of Afghanistan. In 1988, the Soviets started leaving Afghanistan. This marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Afghanistan remained a communist state until the radical Islamic Taliban took power in 1992.
In the Soviet Union, the political system continued to rapidly change under Gorbachev. By 1988, elections were being held for some positions in the government. While Gorbachev only planned to change small parts of the Soviet Union, it ended up breaking it down. By Christmas Day 1991, the Soviet Union was no more.
References:
Encarta 2008, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, viewed 30 May, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/6p7joj.
Trueman, C 2008, History Learning Site, viewed 30 May, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/6zmvf8.
Trueman, C 2008, History Learning Site, viewed 30 May, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/2774v8.
Poon, HW 1979, The Corner, viewed 30 May, 2008http://tinyurl.com/3edbz9.
